People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (11-99) Online Edition .TOPIC 11-99 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.lrna.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE ONE: GLOBALISM = POVERTY WITHOUT BORDERS Have you ever tried to live on less than $1 a day? As incredible as that may sound, 30 percent of the world is living on less than $1 a day. What does this mean for you and the future generations? That the average executive makes 419 times more than you do and 21.6 percent of our children are living in absolute poverty. It also means that many of us are working two jobs, 12-hour shifts, or seven days a week just to make ends meet. This is such a contradiction when you consider that each and every single day of our lives we are constantly reminded of all the wonderful things the world has to offer. Sound bites and images constantly bombard all of our senses with every possible gadget that promises a much simpler life. And yet the very same people who make them, cannot afford them. This moment in time has given us unprecedented advances in technology, medicine, education and production -- all results of what humanity struggled to create through the centuries, through wars, through the good and the bad. At every crux of history where these struggles made their mark in time, society was faced with the challenge to reorganize itself on all levels to meet the impact of change. And while many advances were made, there was never enough to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world without its people paying the price of exploitation and oppression. Today, when there is enough to meet the needs of our rapidly changing world, is it fair to accept that anyone has to continue to pay a price of exploitation or oppression? "Booming economies" mean privilege for a few, but for the rest of us they mean hunger, homelessness, illness and an uncertain future in our midst. The abundance and technology at our fingertips could mean the possibility of ending these issues once and for all. We can dare to achieve a reality that before could only be a dream -- a world that celebrates everything humanity has struggled for, died for, but most importantly what we all live for: the opportunity to live life to its fullest potential. We find ourselves amidst the throes and chaos of change. And while confusion is part of this process, let us all be clear on one thing: We are facing the most important challenge in history of all. That challenge is calling us forth to organize our world on the basis of what this abundance and technology has to offer. Where every struggle, every war, all the good and all the bad, finally come to bear what humanity has a right to: a world of hope and democracy, free of hunger, where everyone is valued and our children are guaranteed a future worthy of all. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 Editorial 1. NO MORE LINES, NO MORE LIES! News and Features 2. MARCH OF THE AMERICAS: VISION OF A WORLD UNIFIED AGAINST POVERTY 3. YOUTH SUMMIT '99: ORGANIZING FOR A NEW SOCIETY 4. DID YOU KNOW THAT ... 5. GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES REVOLUTIONARIES TO RISE TO A NEW KIND OF INTERNATIONALISM 6. GLOBALIZATION'S EFFECTS -- AN OPPORTUNITY 7. IS TECHNOLOGY THE PROBLEM? 8. THE WTO IN SEATTLE: A MEETING OF GLOBAL PIRATES 9. SOUTH AFRICA AT THE MERCY OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Spirit of the Revolution 10. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: GOD'S ECONOMY Music/Poetry/Art/Books 11. TURNING THE PAGE: 'CENTURY OF THE WIND' Announcements, Events, etc. 12. ANNOUNCEMENTS [To subscribe to the online edition, send a message to pt- dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line.] ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. For free electronic subscription, send a message to pt-dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line. For electronic subscription problems, e-mail pt-admin@noc.org. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Edit: No more lines, no more lies! .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: NO MORE LINES, NO MORE LIES! Early Wednesday morning people line up at the corner store, clenching the last few remains of yesterday's paycheck. They are people of the world. The young clerk patiently waits as some dig into the depths of their wallets and change purses to find the last few cents that will purchase them the chance to finally "strike it big." 2.9 million this week! murmurs the humble crowd as the cashier drops their quick-pick tickets into the state's lottery system. The possibilities of winning binds them to the line on a weekly basis. Among that line lies the possibilities of a future. The pursuit of a life filled with what they believe to be happiness: A life with money. But what exactly inhibits them from their true happiness? The waiting in lines seems all too familiar to many of them. They awake at dawn, form lines at the temp agency or at factories that could possibly close tomorrow. They walk into the local Burger King and kindly ask for an application when, deep down in the very gut of their self-worth, they know Burger King is not going to pay next month's rent. And they just wait. They remain in lines only to hear: "Not today, try again tomorrow. Try again next week." And they do. They come again, and again the following week. But they still are only left with the hope that kissed them away as they walked out the door: their families. Like the 18-year-old, who just graduated from high school, and his mom. He's young and vibrant, ready to conquer the world flipping through the pile of employment applications he picked up yesterday. His mom shares in his pursuit. She lugs out her own binder filled with resumes and letters of apology. Dear Ms. Johnson, We thank you for your recent interest in our company. We regret to inform you that at this moment your request for employment has been denied. Your resume will be on file. Thank you. And like many that find themselves in similar conditions, with each letter she plummets into despair. Their patience changes into disgust and confusion. They fear their lives; they fear the anger that boils from within. But do they know that their lives have been cheated? Do they understand that it's not them, but a system of unfairness? Did the evening news forget to convey the reality or an explanation of why the Dow went up or down? Did the local newspaper clarify NAFTA and the history of industrialization, and capitalism? Or did the paperboy forget to leave the paper, or was it the cable man who forgot to re-connect the cable box? Whose fault is it today? Is it the children who don't have enough to eat? Is it the kids at the corner singing to a hip-hop beat waiting for the chance for Mr. Producer-man to come along in his Armani suit and sign them up? Can it be Mr. Garcia's veteran's pension or his wife's social-security check from a dedicated 35 years with the local school district? No, the answer is "none of the above." As always, in this standardized test the ruling class forgot to leave themselves out of it. But the tests and the deceptions of the ruling class are coming to an end. New possibilities are being introduced to the working class and they are fighting. It's a fight filled with passion and a true understanding of what is possible. But who will introduce the intensity of the possibilities? It will take revolutionaries throughout the world to step out and create a powerful battle that will victoriously lead our country to an understanding of the true beauty of a freedom in which all people are valued as humans and all people share the abundance that exists in our world. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 March of the Americas .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. MARCH OF THE AMERICAS: VISION OF A WORLD UNIFIED AGAINST POVERTY +----------------------------------------------------------------+ As we go to press, the March was stopped by the police on 10/28/99 in Irvington, N.J. Cheri Honkala, national spokesperson for the march is now being held in the Irvington jail. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ [Editor's note: From October 1 to November 1, poor and homeless families from the U.S., Canada and Latin America marched 400 miles from Washington, D.C. to New York City to dramatize the plight of the poor in the Americas and to indict the U.S. government for its violations of economic human rights.] The people who have sacrificed to complete this "March of the Americas" are representatives of a new and growing class of destitute people that has been created by the rapidly advancing electronic technology that is steadily replacing labor in the workplace. This new class of poor has been orphaned by Information Age capitalism, abandoned by a system that can no longer use their labor. They have literally been condemned to death -- death by hunger, by disease, by drugs, by the police, by despair. The growing homelessness in our country and throughout the world is merely the cruelest manifestation of the growth of this new class. Yet there is reason for hope. Just as the system has no use for them, the new poor have no use for a system that will not even meet their basic needs. In the end, they will be forced to fight for a new, cooperative system where no one is allowed to be homeless or hungry, and their struggle will in turn force every member of society to take a position for or against them, for or against a new society. There is no doubt that, if the people are told the truth, most of them will stand alongside the poor in the fight for a new society. In this sense, the growth of the new class of poor means the beginning of the end of poverty and oppression. Below are excerpts from speeches and statements made by marchers. These were published on the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) Web site, and are reprinted here with permission. CHERI HONKALA, national spokesperson for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and director of the KWRU: "Those of us who are marching the 400 miles are wondering if we are ever going to have a house to live in. We are the ones who lay our heads down on the street at night. We are the ones living in housing projects, working the land as farm workers; we are the poor of all of the Americas, and we are here to reclaim our basic human rights. Our basic economic human rights. We are tired of the poor sleeping. We are tired of people not taking to the streets under these dire situations. And we are tired of the misleading facts that appear in the newspapers and on the television. Because we know that we have been left out of this so-called economic boom. And until America lives up to the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where no man, woman or child has to lay their head on a street, or underneath a bridge, we will fight to reclaim our human rights. No longer will the poor throughout the Americas and throughout the world accept this injustice. We will take back our basic necessities and we will create the kind of world in which all of us can live together in a land of plenty." LUCAS BENITEZ, of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers: "We are here from Immokalee, Florida, me and nine of my co-workers, representing the thousands of low-wage workers that live in the Immokalee area. We are mostly farm workers. We work hard. But what good is it working hard if we can't even feed our families? For this reason we are uniting our voices with those of everybody else to go to the United Nations and make our voices heard. As long as there is even one person who is poor or suffering abuses and injustice in this country, all of us should be feeling the same way. Only ourselves, all of us together as a community, without regard for race, sex or ethnic group, only that way will we be able to unite and make change in this country. We may not have money, but we do have respect and dignity. And we can show the rich of this country that we will continue forward and we will make change." ETHEL LONG-SCOTT of the Women's Economic Agenda Project of Oakland, California: "We bring you greetings from the state of California on behalf of the poor, the disenfranchised, low-wage workers, and the destitute. There's about 35 million people in California. It's the seventh largest economy in the world, doing about $1 trillion of business every year. And in the shadow of that, eight million poor eke out an existence day to day. And the globalization of capitalism has accelerated making more people poor in our state. ... Of the 400 billionaires in this world, a lot of them are in Silicon Valley. Most of the new jobs that have been developed here have been of contingency workers, who are barely, if at all, making an existence. And they are constantly facing the impact of the automation of the production, which of course is changing everything, for all of us. Our labor is constantly being replaced." LISE FOURNIER of the Action Movement to End Unemployment and Welfare in Quebec: "Where I live, the government says that poverty is lessening. But, in Quebec, there are 800,000 people living on social security. In the last year, the Canadian government took all children off welfare. On October 1 of this year, the government required all people on welfare to find themselves a job or return to school. If they were able to find a job, they would get a bonus of $120 in their social security check. And if they could not find a job, their check would be cut by that much. A single person on social security or a family with one parent both receive the same amount: $502. People are now not able to have a telephone or electricity or even to eat because of this. Women tell me that they feed their children water flavored with ketchup for their dinner. For me, this struggle is important because I want the government to re-examine the reasons why poverty exists. It is for all of these reasons that I am marching with all of you, and I feel a real warmth from all of you." TIM GREEN of the Atlanta Labor Pool Worker's Union: "Labor pools move into an area that's going through economic hardship and they lobby officials and larger companies. They give kickbacks to the officials, or in other words they buy job contracts. Over a long period of time, the labor pools wind up owning all the jobs, and people can't get regular full-time work. These are billion-dollar- a-year corporations, and they're making their profits by exploiting the poor and the homeless. They care nothing about the people who are working for them. There's no limit to what they'll go through to make a profit. One reason why I'm on this march is that I know that us attacking the labor pools in just Atlanta will not have a profound effect on the industry. This is something that has to be addressed on a larger scale. If we don't educate our brothers across the country, the labor pools will continue to grow and spread." WILLIE BAPTIST, KWRU: "I think the U.S. government and those who rule this country are very much aware of how our two struggles, the struggle of the poor in Latin America and the struggle of the poor here, are linked. It is so important that the poor here in this country know that poor people in Latin America and Canada are united in a struggle to end this misery. We know that our greatest contribution to your struggle is changing the policies of this U.S. government here. More poor people are white in this country, and people forget about the poor whites. That's dangerous. Our task is to organize poor whites as well as poor blacks and poor Hispanics throughout the United States and Canada. If we're united with the poor of Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, we will be victorious. Es verdad?" .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Youth Summit '99: Organizing for a new society .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. YOUTH SUMMIT '99: ORGANIZING FOR A NEW SOCIETY By Alicia Espinoza As human labor continues to be replaced by more efficient and cost-effective machines, full-time jobs are becoming scarce. More and more families find themselves working two or more part-time jobs. Men, women and children have become co-dependent on each other for economic support and survival. The idea of having a "head of the household" is nearly extinct. Faced with the responsibility of contributing to the household income, many youth find themselves overburdened, mentally and physically fatigued, their futures clouded by the cruel reality of poverty and the ill- distribution of all the resources available to them and their families. And yet, is it any surprise that Chicago has a 50 percent drop-out rate in its public- school system? While Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas strokes his ego bragging about how the scores on standardized tests have improved, half of the students entitled to a public-school education have been pushed out of the system. What then? Displaced out of the school system, the youth end up on the streets, finding any way to make a living, competing with their mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles, to find a job that will pay at least minimum wage. It becomes more and more difficult as the City of Chicago continues to reduce the opportunities available to young people. Since the 1980's, the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) provided thousands of jobs for low-income youth in Chicago. By the year 2000, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) will supplant JTPA, reducing 15,000 summer jobs to a couple hundred jobs year round. Such an act could be devastating for low-income families, especially since unemployment is already rampant at 57 percent amongst black youth and 46 percent amongst Latinos. Where do our city's priorities lie? More importantly, where do our country's priorities lie? The yearly cost to incarcerate a federal prisoner is approximately $23,500, compared to the $6,064 allocated per student in the Chicago public-school system. There has been a 30% increase in the state's spending on prisons, as opposed to a 15% decrease in government funding for public higher education. In 1995, the prison construction budget alone amounted to $2.6 billion. A city-wide collaboration of organizations, agencies and individuals, has created the Community Justice Initiative, established in their own words to "address these issues by developing action-education curricula, alternative justice methods, community organizing, and advocacy strategies ... a coalition focused on the empowerment of youth and families in the Chicago area." On June 26, over 200 youth and adults assembled at Northwestern University to discuss the problems and concerns plaguing the youth and their communities. As a collective, participants discussed possibilities and solutions to the criminalization of youth, justice, education, poverty, and lack of opportunities. Youth there anxiously waited to share all their ideas at the conference held at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) on Oct. 2 and 3, to which public officials from all over the city were invited, and the youth would finally have a space to voice their boiling dismay at the system that has failed them. The summit was a startling success. Approximately 700 youth and adults gathered at UIC. Workshops included Youth and Media, Economics of Criminalization, Laws Affecting Youth, Police Brutality, and many more. During the "Youth Speak Out," the youth demanded of public officials to give them the answers to help change their communities, and to let their voices be heard. Public officials responded, "By voting and lobbying." Charity, a 16 year- old from South West Youth Organization reminded the officials, "Vote? Most of us in this room are not of legal age to vote. Lobbying? Lobbying requires money. Does that mean we have no rights? What do you think we're doing now? We're organized, and asking that we be listened to, and that actions be taken to address our concerns." Wenona Thompson, a community activist, stepped up to the microphone and described her life growing up in poverty, her recourse to drugs to make a living, and her horrifying experience as a child locked up in the merciless prison system. Wenona's emotional statement brought the room of 700 to silence, "You ask us to come knocking at your doors to lobby for our rights. Yet, when I was out on the streets trying to stay alive, no public official came knocking at my door asking me, 'Did you eat today?'" Young people from all over Chicago displayed their hunger for a new society, a world in which their government embraces their communities, advocates for them, and gives them the opportunity of an education that empowers them, rather than making them slaves to a system that renders them invisible when unprofitable. One young man's confusion reflected the disappointment of all when he asked, "What happened? I thought we were your future ...?" .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Did you know that ... ... .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. DID YOU KNOW THAT ... MUMIA WINS STAY OF EXECUTION October was an important month in the 18-year struggle to win justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal. On October 4, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his appeal in the Pennsylvania courts of his 1982 trial in which he was sentenced to death for the killing of a Philadelphia policeman in 1981. On October 13, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed a new order for Mumia to be executed on December 2. That date happens to be the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid. On October 15, Mumia's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court in Philadelphia to start a new appeal process and block Ridge' s warrant. On October 26, Philadelphia federal Judge William Yohn Jr. granted a stay of execution. Meanwhile, activity on Mumia's behalf continued across the United States and the world. Danielle Mitterrand, widow of the former French president, spoke out for Mumia during a television interview, and French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine told the National Assembly that France would press the European Union to act in favor of clemency. Further information can be found at: http://www.mumia.org/mumia.org/ INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS FLY OFF THE SHELVES Sales of industrial robots are rising rapidly worldwide -- except in Asia -- the United Nations reported on October 5. A new report predicts that from 1998 to 2002 sales will rise 43 percent in the United States and 45 percent in Europe. "Skyrocketing sales" in the United States sent orders up 90 percent in the first half of 1999 over January-June 1998. The rise was fueled mostly by a 214 percent increase in orders from the U.S. motor industry. Sales in Europe rose 10 percent in 1998 and 32 percent in the first half of 1999. However, sales in Asia fell 13 percent from 1997 to 1998 because of the financial crisis there. Japan still remains first in all kinds of robots with 411,000 in 1998 -- half the world's population of robots. The United States is second with 81,700. Germany is third with 73,200. Service models, used in homes, hospitals, hotels and agriculture, number about 5,000. The report predicted a major increase of service robots, especially vacuum- cleaning models, by 2002. "TERMINATOR" SEEDS: MONSANTO CHANGES COURSE Bio-engineered "terminator" seeds that produce sterile crops have been called "a real threat to world food security" by one Canadian farmers' activist group, among many worldwide who oppose such seeds. Terminator seeds are being researched by a number of corporations seeking huge profits from their development at the expense of the world's poor and hungry. But one of these corporations, Monsanto, has decided not to market such technology because of worldwide opposition, according to the October 18 U.S. News & World Report. Instead, Monsanto reportedly is considering technologies that switch engineered plant genes on and off after chemical spraying. SURVEY SAYS: MARX IS THE GREATEST Who is the greatest thinker of the millennium? It's none other than Karl Marx. So says a poll conducted by the BBC's News Online and published on October 1. The author of "Capital" finished ahead of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. A spokesman for the BBC's Internet service attempted to explain Marx's enduring popularity. "We have done a fair amount recently on the 10th anniversary of the fall of communism," he told Reuters. "Perhaps that made some people a bit nostalgic." Marx belongs not to nostalgia, but to a vision of total human freedom. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Globalization challenges revolutionaries to rise to a new k .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES REVOLUTIONARIES TO RISE TO A NEW KIND OF INTERNATIONALISM [Editor's note: The following article is excerpted from a series of articles published in Rally Comrades!, a publication of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. For the full text of these articles, see the LRNA Web page www.lrna.org for our special globalization section.] The unprecedented rate at which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer is not just a bad thing getting worse. New methods of production are giving rise to new classes, a new class polarity in the world, and the battleground for the struggle that can reconstruct society on new foundations. What we face today is not just significant economic changes, but economic changes so powerful and profound that they are eroding the basis for old categories of history. ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION: CAPITALISM IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONICS The process of globalization is driven by the dynamics of capitalism. Capitalism's survival rests on the extraction of profit on a constantly increasing scale through the extension of production. While electronics has enabled the unification of the world commodity market (including the labor market) and the financial market -- by dramatically cheapening communications and transportation -- it also introduces a radical new quality -- electronic production. This new element attacks the very foundation of capitalism -- the extraction of surplus value from workers -- by introducing laborless production. To maintain profits, capitalists seek out the cheapest production costs (regardless of whether production is done by robots or by human muscle, or whether it takes place in Detroit or in Jakarta). So, as electronics extends throughout the global economy, workers around the world are compelled to compete not only with each other but with their electronic counterparts -- robots and automated machinery of increasingly diverse types. With electronics driving down the value of labor power, and therefore wages, more members of the household are compelled to enter the job market, or to work past retirement age, or to take on multiple jobs in unsuccessful attempts to maintain a slipping standard of living. Others are being driven to the bottom of the job market by the end of welfare. This is temporarily providing a cheaper alternative to technology. The capitalist does not care if production is done by the "gratuitous labor of machines" or by the "free" labor of slaves. The critical indicator of the impact of electronics on production is not "employment" statistics, but the polarization of wealth and poverty. With the destruction of the value of labor power and wages, wealth polarizes and the economic center disappears. The result is a handful of international capitalists on one side, and a vast majority of marginalized or destitute proletarians, incapable of purchasing the flood of goods, on the other. Such is the inescapable dilemma faced by capital in the age of globalization. A NEW GLOBAL PROLETARIAN CLASS A new proletariat is emerging in the imperialist center, to join ranks with a proletariat in the former colonies. We can see the formation of this new class in the increase in sweatshop and slave labor, rampant unemployment and job insecurity, and the growing gap between wealth and poverty in the world. Meanwhile, private property rules that those without money do not eat. The program of this new class is not to reform the old system but rather to reorganize society to expel the relation of private property from the way that people relate to one another economically and socially. The actual need of this class -- and for all of humanity -- is for the wealth produced by society to be distributed according to need. The existence of this new proletarian class is the embryo of the new society, a communist society. In this sense, it is a communist class. The formation of this new global proletarian class challenges the revolutionaries of the world to rise to the demands of a new kind of internationalism. Today, there is a new basis for practical unity. A new level of ideological unity is now possible. THE TASKS OF REVOLUTIONARIES We will not get revolution without revolutionary ideology; and revolutionary ideology doesn't just grow out of the intensification of the struggle for reforms. Change begins when something new is introduced into the old set-up and begins to disrupt it. Revolutionaries have the responsibility to add the intellectual and moral element, that which poses the solutions to all the current social struggles but which does not arise automatically from that struggle itself. The ideology of the new proletarian class is inspired by a vision of a world without want, a world where everyone has nourishment for the spirit as well as for the body. This ideology is based on the understanding that the solution to the problems of the day lies in reorganizing society without private-property relations. It is the recognition, therefore, that the aim of the struggle is to gain the political power to do that. This ideology can guide anyone who wants to participate in the struggle, no matter what their position in society. Ideology rests on an understanding of underlying causes, but it is also the spirit that compels you to fight, to crusade for what's right. Uniting the revolutionary class with its ideology takes an organization of revolutionaries structured for and dedicated to that program. Such an organization creatively and boldly conducts communist propaganda to show how private property is the cause of each of the particular problems facing the people. It works within the instances of practical unity against the system to develop the revolutionary ideology and politics of that unity. This is what the League of Revolutionaries for a New America was formed to do. We invite all who share these goals to join us. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Globalization's effects -- an opportunity .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. GLOBALIZATION'S EFFECTS -- AN OPPORTUNITY A 49-year-old man in Evanston, Illinois will earn $12,000 this year from his work as a part-time janitor and computer repairman. He pays $400 per month to live in a basement apartment. He has no health insurance and cannot eat at soup kitchens because of his high blood pressure. Food served at the soup kitchens is too high in cholesterol. A family of three from Long Island, New York has an income of $200 a week after taxes and pays $800 a month in rent. They turned to a food pantry that provides them with two bags of groceries a week to survive. Multiply these situations by millions and you get a picture of an America made up of haves and have-nots. This is the consequence of the permanent loss of millions of manufacturing jobs now being done by robots and computers and the "creation" of jobs that pay minimum wage. Whether you live in a city, suburb or rural area, you yourself or your neighbors are not making it. It is out of this misery, despair and destruction that the salvation of America is arising. Automation is creating a whole new social class. This new class is composed of part-time, minimum-wage and temporary workers. It is composed of the unemployed and homeless -- all those created by the invasion of robotics. This class has no attachment to the capitalist system because this system can no longer provide the jobs that allow the workers to buy the housing, food and the means to survive. The natural political demand of this new class is that production without labor -- carried on by robots and computers -- be distributed according to need, rather than money. People are not living in poverty because there is not enough food or housing to go around. We are living in a system that casts you out of its orbit if you do not have a job that allows you to buy these things. It is time for a change. The conditions of this new class are not to simply be pitied -- it is a banner to raise in the fight for a new society, just as the existence of slavery was used to tear down the slavocracy. We live in a country where it has become acceptable that one in five of our children live in poverty -- the highest rate in the Western industrialized world. In America, 14.3 million children are living in abject poverty. Our government is telling us that it will not take responsibility for this. That means that all the decent people have to take on the responsibility to reconstruct this society. For the first time in human history, we are able to produce an abundance with electronic production of what we need to thrive. Not only do we no longer have to compete to eat and live, we have the means to develop our humanity in ways only imagined and dreamed of in the past. Just as the slaveholders who prospered like royalty from the cotton produced by the slaves, today's rulers have every intention of keeping the abundance being created today in the hands of their class. The top one percent of households (2.7 million people) have as much combined income as the bottom 100 million and they love their wealth. The new class being created out of the destruction of society is a beacon of light showing us the future, because it's problems can only be resolved through the common ownership of the means used to produce the wealth. Only then can all be fed, housed and clothed equally. By taking the message of the reconstruction of America to every nook and cranny of this country, we can gather the forces needed to tear down the political and financial oligarchy that will do nothing to end the poverty of our children. It is our responsibility and duty. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "I want the University to serve the needs of the people who pay for it -- it is a public university, after all. I want the working people of Oklahoma to control their own destinies, to interpret their own history. The struggles of the working people of Oklahoma should serve to inspire them to aid and help the struggles for dignity and equality throughout the world." John J. Winters, University of Oklahoma (OU) graduate "What I would like to see is a just world but I think, right now, we still need to focus on giving people a vision of what a just world would be and convincing them that it is possible." Gretchen Gordon, OU political science senior "I want to help create a world where every person has the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential. I am fighting to expose the contradictions of this culture of competition which permeates our current system and replace it with a cooperative system where no person is exploited by another." Traviss Thomas, OU letters senior +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. IS TECHNOLOGY THE PROBLEM? By Jim Davis Is technology the cause of globalization? Is technology the problem? From the first migration of humans across the African continent, and from there to just about every corner of the earth starting some million or more years ago, to the world trade and travel of today, human societies have always been as "global" as technology would permit. But what we think of as globalization -- the world domination of private property in the form of the supernational corporation and the speculative capitalist, the superexploitation of workers around the world, the absolute poverty of billions of people and the absolute wealth of a tiny handful of capitalists -- did new technologies do that? Hardly. "Globalization" is the result of a relatively small class of property owners fighting to maintain their privilege and wealth in the presence of new technologies like electronics and computers. Or rather, as the League of Revolutionaries for a New America has said on many occasions, "globalization" is simply the form that capitalism takes in the age of electronics. The problem isn't technology. It's the way the technologies are used by those in power. The Internet could bring the world's knowledge to every human being; instead, under capitalism, it's turned into a hypermarket. Advances in biology could enable sustainable and safe agriculture; instead capitalism gives us sterile seeds and untested gene sequences. Since capitalism is in control, capitalists decide what technologies get developed, how they get used, and who gets to use them. Technology makes possible many kinds of futures. We can see what kind of world capitalism has created. Certainly we can envision a future where the many benefits of new technologies enrich everybody. Can we turn the clock back? Is it possible to return to some "good old days" before we had the problems we associate with globalization? First, it's questionable whether there ever was such a thing as "good old days." They may have been good for a handful of property owners, but certainly not for everybody. Second, abandoning the productivity of new technologies would almost certainly doom billions of people to a horrible holocaust of starvation and disease. Third, since technology isn't the problem, but rather the class in power which is calling the shots, rolling back the technology clock would not solve any problems. The solution to the problems posed by "globalization" lies in getting rid of the source of the problem -- a system based on private property and the exploitation of human beings, that puts profit above all else and destroys the planet in the process. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 The WTO in Seattle: .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. THE WTO IN SEATTLE: A MEETING OF GLOBAL PIRATES By Noel Beasley In late November and early December, trade ministers and powerful political leaders from around the world will gather in Seattle, Washington for a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). If all goes well, what is planned as a love-in for capitalism, a would-be Woodstock of Free Trade, will be exposed as a gathering of global pirates where "Sympathy for the Devil" should be played as the theme music before each session. The WTO was established in 1995 to enforce the rules governing most of world trade. While it does not write trade laws, it sets guidelines for conformity and judges disputes between countries which accuse each other of restricting trade unfairly. To fully understand the WTO and the importance of the Seattle summit, we need to know what the WTO is and what it is not. The WTO is designed -- like any other police department -- to "serve and protect." In this case, it serves the capitalist system and protects private property of the transnational corporations and of the wealthiest individuals. It promotes myths and lies about so-called "free-trade" while driving down the wages and living conditions of the majority of humanity. It is not what it should be -- an assembly of world trade negotiators dedicated to protection of worker rights, promotion of effective environmental and public-health regulations and the improvement of the quality of life for the planet's population. The primary lie at the core of the WTO is that in the late 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism due to an economic version of natural laws of survival of the fittest. The truth is that communism did not collapse because it never had been established. Destruction did occur to a number of socialist states that had been subjected to an unrelentingly merciless attack by all available means -- devastation by military assaults, isolation by economic and technological boycotts, and confusion sown by propaganda bombardments. What also collapsed in the same period were many of the so-called democracies of capitalism. While the suffering in the former Soviet Union is constantly in the media spotlight, in the end, hunger in Georgia is the same whether that Georgia is in Dixie or Asia. The World Trade Organization, together with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are the security guards of the New World Disorder dreamed up by those who oppose both the protection of and the fair and equitable distribution of the planet's wealth. But within all apparent defeats are the seeds of possible future victories. As the economies of the states of both the Soviet Union and NATO were shaken, as Japan and Malaysia and Canada and countless other countries and economic spheres were tumbling, liberation forces won unprecedented freedoms in South Africa and revolutionary fighters sprang up from Chiapas to South Central Los Angeles. There is an awareness mushrooming at atomic velocities that the forces of global capitalism are inherently reactionary. And on November 30 in Seattle, a remarkable coalition of trade unionists, environmentalists and community activists will challenge the conventional wisdom of the corporate-owned six o'clock news and begin to set the record straight. In reality, the proper name for the WTO should be World Theft Organization. The tens of thousands who march and demonstrate in Seattle on November 30 will demand that the priorities of trade must be the exchange of goods and services globally for the betterment of all, not for the enrichment of the few and the destitution of the many. The Seattle summit is a unique opportunity to express the sense of outrage simmering just below the surface of the false sea of tranquility of the New World Order. If you're going to Seattle, don't bother to wear any flowers in your hair. Bring your boots. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "As it stands today, America is like a giant haystack. What is a haystack but a pile of dead grass in which a large mass of hay at the bottom supports the few at the top? Those on the bottom are crushed under the burden of supporting the relative comfort enjoyed by those few free-standing pieces of hay on the top of the pile. What I envision is a field of living grass that bends in the wind, and leans on each other in order to survive crisis. This is why I am a revolutionary." -- Dru Clark, a student organizer of "No Sweat!" at Indiana University at Bloomington +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 South Africa at the mercy of the global economy .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 9. SOUTH AFRICA AT THE MERCY OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY By Nancy Singham And Dennis Brutus In 1955, in the dark days when the apartheid regime in South Africa was still consolidating its power, the Congress of the People met in Kliptown and defiantly proclaimed the Freedom Charter -- a statement of constitutional principles for a new, non-racial nation. The Congress brought together over 3,000 people of all races representing the African National Congress (ANC), and other democratic anti-apartheid groups. The government declared treason was being committed, arresting 156 people over the next two years, none ever convicted. In 1960, a state of emergency was declared, and all anti-apartheid organizations were banned and their leadership arrested. The Freedom Charter that so terrified the regime affirmed that South Africa belonged to all its people, black and white, demanded a non-racial, democratic government, equality before the law for all, and -- the most controversial demand -- nationalization of banks, mines and other monopoly industries. It became the official charter of the movement for the next 40 years. But with the end of apartheid in 1994, the Freedom Charter's economic policies were abandoned. The realities of the global economy dictated policies friendly to international capital, with the very real threat of massive pullouts of capital if the policies of the Freedom Charter were implemented. Mandela came to power when he was least able to use economic power to change society. Fears by foreign investors about the intentions of the ANC in the first several years of its rule contributed to the currency crash in 1996, when the value of the rand fell by 25 percent in just six weeks. This forced the government to finally drop its mild social- democratic program and replace it with an austerity program. The new economic program -- called GEAR (Growth, Employment And Redistribution) -- was recently characterized by Time magazine as "an essentially conservative plan that starts with deficit reduction and control of inflation, holding down wage demands and selling off major state assets." Despite GEAR, private investment in South Africa fell from 6.1 percent in '96 to 3.1 percent in '97, and to -0.7 percent in '98. Worse, during the last 5 years, only 20 percent of foreign investment went into "brick and mortar" investment. The other 80 percent has mostly taken the form of short-term portfolio investments, which can flow out of the country as fast as they come in. This speculative capital has little positive impact on the economy. In spite of the concessions made under GEAR, the currency lost 30 percent of its value in real terms in the last five years. As Thabo Mbeki, the newly elected president, said last year, South Africa is still a "country of two nations" -- one white and relatively prosperous, the other black and poor. Negotiations leading to the 1994 elections let the whites maintain their economic power in exchange for political power for the ANC. South Africa is the second most economically polarized country in the world (after Brazil). Average white household income is about five times greater than for black households. Restructuring of the economy (replacing people with computers to cut costs), has resulted in the loss of an estimated 100,000 jobs in the private sector each year. In 1998 official unemployment was 34 percent (42 percent for black adults). There is a devastating crime wave (South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world), which particularly victimizes the black population. An ambitious educational plan has run aground due to a serious lack of resources. A serious shortage of skilled labor is further exacerbated by the escalating brain drain. Illustrating the constraints imposed by global capital is the response by international drug companies to the AIDS crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has 70 percent of the new HIV cases worldwide, but less than 1 percent of the world's AIDS drugs. In 1997, South Africa's Parliament passed legislation that would have allowed the country's own drug companies to ignore overseas patents and make lower-cost generic drugs available. The major world drug companies sued South Africa, claiming the new law violated American and World Trade Organization laws that protect drug companies from having their patents "violated" abroad, and enlisted the Clinton administration to threaten trade sanctions against South Africa for possible violations of intellectual property rights. The battle recently ended with some concessions, but South Africa was forced to agree "that it won't apply a new pharmaceutical law in a way that violates international agreements on intellectual property." A major drag on the economy is the extremely heavy apartheid debt that eats up 21 percent of the yearly budget. The debt is estimated at a whopping R100 billion by Dr. Molefe Tsele, chair of the South African branch of Jubilee 2000, an international movement based in over 40 countries and representing more than 80 organizations, which advocates a debt-free start to the Millenium. Debt owed to the IMF and western nations adversely affects a billion people (one-sixth of the world's population) living in the poorest countries. Its counterpart in this country is the "50 Years Is Enough" (i.e., enough of IMF and World Bank induced debt) network of over 200 religious, environmental, women's and labor groups, with 180 partners in 65 other countries. It is clear that global capital can only be confronted by an international movement -- no national government or movement can control global capital and the devastation it so often causes. Thabo Mbeki, in a speech last year in the South African Parliament, emphasized that the lack of progress toward a more just and equitable society "is producing rage among millions of people." Quoting Langston Hughes he asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?" The poet's answer: "It explodes." The next battle comes at the "Ministerial Round" of the World Trade Organization at the end of November in Seattle. Already students, churches, labor and environmental activists are preparing for a major confrontation -- perhaps the largest anti- global protest yet -- under the banner of "People Before Profits." The demand will be "No new trade round and a review of the policies of the WTO and their destructive effects." .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Spirit: God's Economy .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 10. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: GOD'S ECONOMY God speed the year of jubilee, the wide world o'er! When from their galling chains set free, The oppressed shall vilely bend the knee And wear the yoke of tyranny, like brutes, no more That year will come, and Freedom's reign To man his plundered rights again, restore. --William Lloyd Garrison by Ched Myers In most North American churches today, it is exceedingly difficult to talk about economics. This topic is more taboo than politics, more even than sex -- a subject with which our churches have recently become all too preoccupied. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinate than the economy. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures. The pre-eminent challenge to the human family today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power. Any theology that refuses to reckon with these realities is both cruel and irrelevant. We Christians must talk about economics, and talk about it in the light of the Gospel. "Churches," asserts Cornel West, "may be the last places left in our culture that can engage the public conversation with non- market values." The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society -- a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical version refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." The biblical standard of social and economic justice is grounded in God's call to "keep the Sabbath." The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew verb shabat, which means to rest or stop working. It first appears in the Bible as the culmination of the story of creation. Human beings are to imitate God in practicing Sabbath. The next place we encounter the term (now as a noun, not a verb) is in the archetypal story of hunger and bread in the wilderness (Exodus 16). The people have been sprung from slavery, but now must face the harsh realities of life outside the imperial system. Their first test of character, not surprisingly, is how they will sustain themselves. The manna story is not just a feeding miracle. It is a parable that illustrates Yahweh's alternative to Egyptian economy (Exodus 16:6). God "raining bread from heaven" symbolizes cultivation as a divine gift, a process that begins with rain and ends with bread. This story narrates a "test" to see if Israel will follow instructions on how to gather -- a symbol in traditional societies for harvesting. Moses' instructions give us the three defining characteristics of this alternative economic practice. First, every family is told to gather just enough bread for their needs (Exodus 16:16-18). In contrast to Israel's Egyptian condition of oppression and need, here everyone has enough: "Those who gathered more had no surplus, and those who gathered less had no shortage." In God's economy there is such a thing as "too much" and "too little." Second, this bread should not be "stored up" (16:19-20). Israel is enjoined to keep wealth circulating through strategies of redistribution, not concentrating through strategies of accumulation. The third instruction introduces Sabbath discipline (Exodus 16:22- 30). The prescribed periodic rest for the land and for human labor means to disrupt human attempts to "control" nature and "maximize" the forces of production. Because the earth belongs to God and its fruits are a gift, the people should justly distribute those fruits, instead of seeking to own and hoard them. The manna story, in sum, illustrates human dependence on the divine "economy of grace." Sabbath observation means to remember every week this economy's two principles: the goal of "enough" for everyone, and the prohibition on hoarding. This vision is, of course, utterly contrary to economics as we know it. The fullest expression of Sabbath logic is the Levitical "Jubilee": a comprehensive remission to take place every "Sabbath's Sabbath," or 49th-50th year (Leviticus 25). The Jubilee (named after the jovel, a ram's horn that sounded to herald the remission) aimed to dismantle structures of social-economic inequality by: releasing each community member from debt; returning encumbered or forfeited land to its original owners; and freeing slaves. The rationale for this unilateral restructuring of the community's assets was to remind Israel that the land belongs to God (Leviticus 25:23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery (Leviticus 25:42). It was the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, in his now classic work "The Politics of Jesus, " who popularized for my generation the notion of Jesus as a Jubilee practitioner. Yoder rightly pointed out that Luke's Gospel is organized around Isaiah's proclamation of "good news for the poor." Only real debt- cancellation and land-restoration could represent good news to real poor people. Similarly, a Jubilee gospel is usually unwelcome news to the wealthy (as in the Magnificat's annunciation that God "has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty"). But the evidence goes far beyond a few widely acknowledged texts. In fact, a revisioning of Sabbath economics defined Jesus' call to discipleship, lay at the heart of his teaching -- and stood at the heart of his conflict with the Judean public order. Discipleship means forsaking the seductions and false securities of the debt system for a recommunitized economy of enough for everyone. In such an economy, which Jesus calls "the kingdom," there are no longer any rich and poor -- by definition, therefore, the rich "cannot enter" it (Mark 10:23-25). So contrary is this to our accepted horizons of possibility, however, that disciples ancient and modern have difficulty truly believing (Mark 10:26). Fortunately the "subversive memory" of Jubilee has kept erupting throughout church history, among early monks, medieval communitarians, and radical reformers. Those of us who would insist that the Bible's ancient socio-economic and spiritual disciplines remain relevant today have hard work to do. We must diligently and creatively explore what contemporary, concrete analogies might be to Jubilee practices of old. The alternative is the "capital-olatry" of the runaway global economy. In all of this, the church can help nurture commitment and creativity by promoting "Sabbath literacy," a spirituality of forgiveness and reparation, and practical economic discipline for individuals, households and congregations. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Turning the page: .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 11. TURNING THE PAGE: 'CENTURY OF THE WIND' By Lew Rosenbaum [Editor's note: Eduardo Galeano, author of "Open Veins of Latin America" and "Book of Embraces" recently received the Cultural Freedom Prize of the Lannan Foundation. "Century of the Wind" is the third volume in the trilogy "Memory of Fire."] At the end of the last century, the inhabitants of San Jose de Gracia, Mexico gathered at the church expecting the world to end. They hoped to die clean as a just God's wrath cleared away the accumulated sin of centuries. The world did not end. Instead, the years moved inexorably onward. In "Century of the Wind," Galeano tells the story of these years in vignettes of one or two paragraphs, each a chronicle of an event. Imaginative, sensuous, neither fiction nor essay but perhaps both, this is a book to linger over and return to. We, Galeano's readers, are the spiritual descendants of the pilgrims of San Jose de Gracia, at the turn of another century, marching forward in the shadow of Y2K predictions of doom. One theme is clear: Galeano claims all of America for his subject. Unlike U.S. politicians who fail to recognize an America below the Rio Grande, he writes mostly about this "other" America. But his anecdotes bind all of the Americas. Two side-by-side vignettes from 1914 illustrate this. In one, with a revolutionary war raging in Mexico, John Reed comes to northern Mexico to interview Pancho Villa. In the next, Joe Hill, an IWW organizer known for his songs to incite the labor movement, is executed in Salt Lake City. Later, in a 1923 vignette, the news of John Reed's death reaches Pancho Villa during a party at his northern Mexico stronghold. The party is suspended momentarily as Villa remembers that he had never heard of socialism before Reed. All of America is Galeano's subject, but not all of its people are Galeano's kin. He savages the rulers of all countries. He chronicles how United Fruit, always a symbol of U.S. control of the Americas, increased its stranglehold on the American economies throughout the century. In three 1954 entries, this control leads carefully to the invasion of Guatemala and overthrow of its government. Meanwhile Galeano paints loving portraits of his true brothers and sisters: the poor, the cultural workers, those striving for justice and freedom. His pictures of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith sing. The Mexican artistic community of Kahlo and Rivera, Orozco and Siquieros and Modotti; comics Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Cantinflas; and directors Eisenstein and Orson Welles are all threads in Galeano's tapestry, a weave that demonstrates interconnections. It is not only the rule of capital that is able to build bridges, says Galeano. There is plenty of reason to despair at the end of the century. Time and again, the dreams of the people were crushed by the combination of Wall Street and local despots. But Galeano refuses to sink into melancholy. In a metaphor of twists and turns, no matter the dozen deaths that threaten Salvadoran shoemaker, organizer, communist Miguel Marmol, he escapes to be reborn stronger. This century of wind has blown dramatic changes across the globe. The cultural unity developing among the armies of the poor in Mexico, Argentina and California is as much a fact of life today as the economic ties between the ruling powers of supranational corporations. The practical solutions to the problems Galeano describes of poverty and misery are much more at hand than they were 100 years ago. Reading Galeano uncovers our history and reminds us that, understanding our past, we pilgrims stand less on the threshold of another shrine than on the verge of making our own future. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 11-99 Announcements .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 12. ANNOUNCEMENTS GET MUSIC & REVOLUTION 3! The League of Revolutionaries for a New America has published its third special edition of the People's Tribune dedicated to Music & Revolution. Music & Revolution 3 brings all of the flavor of the first two editions but it strikes deeper with analysis you will find nowhere else. This issue features: "The Capitalist Music Industry is Obsolete: What Can Take Its Place?" "Is Music Revolutionary?" "Music, Revolution and Technology" "Unity" "How You Can Connect Music To Revolution" Bundles of 10 or more are just 10 cents per copy (send to People's Tribune, Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654). The entire contents of Music and Revolution 3 can be found at the Web page of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America at: http://www.lrna.org/league/mr/mr3.html +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "VIACOM PROPOSES TAKEOVER OF PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO" Not really, we wouldn't let them anyway! But if you want something other than what the corporate media has to offer, then tune in to People's Tribune Radio. This month is on the "Road to Seattle and the World Trade Organization Meeting." Guests include Dr. David C. Korten (author, "When Corporations Ruled the World & Life After Capitalism"); Professor Doreen Stabinsky (Council for Responsible Genetics) on Genetically Engineered Organisms; and commentary by Brooke Heagerty (co-author, "Moving Onward From Racial Division to Class Unity" and Board Member, People's Tribune.) You can listen to the program at http://www.ptradio.org. For a free copy to take to your community radio station, call 1-800-691-6888 or e-mail flr@jps.net or speakers@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SPEAKERS for a NEW AMERICA Issues speakers can address: * The March of the Americas for Economic Human Rights * Why the new class of poor represents hope for a totally new world * Dangers of Genetically Altered Foods and Solutions * Is globalization a choice for the capitalists? * Sweatshops, "Illegal" Immigrants and Labor * Wave of Racist Killings versus Moving Onward From Racial Division to Class Unity * The Danger of War against China * Restructuring Public Education in the interests of America's poor * Democracy and Fascism. Is national sovereignty the answer? * Is technology Bad? Can it serve the interests of humanity, not the billionaires? * Mumia and the rise of a police state in America * A New Cooperative World: Redistribution of wealth by need Speakers include: * Richard Monje Special Projects Coordinator, UNITE! Union * Laura Garcia Editor, People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo * Brooke Heagerty Writer, race and class * Doreen Stabinsky Environmentalist * Jonathan King Biologist, Social Effects, Cloning * Chris Mahin Writer, Historical Topics * Steve Wiser Mumia's Spiritual Advisor * Cheri Honkala Leader, March of the Americas * Ben Manski Student Organizer, writer/education * Steve Miller Public School Teacher Our speakers bring a vision of a new, cooperative world. Send for a free brochure. 1-800-691-6888 or e-mail speakers@noc.org, or write People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NOW IN PAPERBACK: MOVING ONWARD FROM RACIAL DIVISION TO CLASS UNITY by Brooke Heagerty and Nelson Peery. Is racism genetic? Or is it a result of social and economic conditions? In fact, racism evolved as a special product of the capitalist era. In America, it has been used ever since to divide workers. But, today new electronic production is creating a commonality of poverty. This is the foundation for people to unite to create a new world. "Moving Onward" is a call to revolutionaries to understand the changes underway in the world and spread new ideas that make a new cooperative world possible. The book will be available on December 1. Send your order today: $5.95 plus $2 shipping to People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INTERVIEW ON TAPE U. Utah Phillips * Nelson Peery A Live interview with U. Utah Phillips and Nelson Peery who debate and discuss rebellion, revolution, racism, class unity and how to achieve a cooperative world dedicated to peace and justice. U. Utah Phillips is a storyteller, songwriter and labor activist whose contributions to folk music are legendary. He has crossed generations with his recording collaborations with the diva of folk-punk-rock music, Ani DiFranco. Nelson Peery is the award-winning author of "Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary" and a founding member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Send $15 to People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. Or call 1-800-691-6888 to order this three part series on two 60-minute cassettes. Also included is an interview with award-winning author Luis Rodriguez. This interview on tape was produced by Mike Thornton of Full Logic Reverse at flr@jps.net .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 11/ November, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ******************************************************************